7/03/2017

While Fear the Walking Dead’s parent show The Walking Dead has taken its time building up the war between Rick and Negan, Fear the Walking Dead is ramping up a war between those of Broke Jaw Ranch and last week’s new enemies, Walker the members of his reservation. Last week Walker laid out his plans for seizing the ranch as a means of reparations due to past injustices, and in the zombie apocalypse, the stakes are big. After killing a few people and confronting Troy, Madison, and Troy’s militia, Walker made his intentions known that he wants the ranch, and if they don’t leave, they will die. Walker then robbed them of their supplies, their guns, and even their shoes.

After Madison, Troy and everyone make it back to the ranch with the bad news, tensions are running high. The utopia of the ranch has finally been met with the realities of the lawlessness of the apocalypse. At first Madison and Troy are very hush hush about what happened while they were out there. Fellow militiaman Mike, war-weary lets the whole community know about Walker and his demands. This now causes the community to go into chaos.

Jeremiah tells Madison about the history that his ranch has had with the Walkers. It gets a little borderline racist as he describes the Native Americans as “drunken, diabetic, welfare cheats” while stating he’s not racist but “it’s the truth.” The Walkers have fought Jeremiah and his family in the courts over the years to try to get their land back. However, it’s now the apocalypse, there are no courts. If you want something, you take it by force. Jeremiah also has concerns about the stability of the ranch. Many of the original founders are now dead thanks to the Walkers. Jeremiah is one of the few founders who still remain. If he goes, his sons would inherit the ranch. One is meek, the other is a psychopath.

The native are still restless as one family decides to leave. They figure it’s better to brace the unknown outside the ranch than being slaughtered by the Walkers. This leads a confrontation at the front gate. Troy is trying to make sure they don’t leave, even at the threat of gunpoint. His brother Jake tries to talk some sense to him, which leads to a fight between the two siblings, which then forces Jeremiah to get involved as he socks his volatile son, nearly breaking his own hand. In the aftermath, Troy is at the armory trying to secure the weapons to make sure no one leaves and takes the guns. At Madison’s urging he, Troy shapes up. He then sees his fellow militiamen and starts to lead them. He talks of order and defense and is very reminiscent of Negan. Could Troy be a warlord in training?

After a drunken night with Nick (who didn’t drink), Jeremiah goes out with Madison after he sees one of the escapees’ horses has made it back to the ranch. Thinking that they might be in trouble, he Madison, and Nick goes out searching for the family. When they find the family’s RV, it’s been riddled with bullets and the family was killed and reanimated as zombies. After dispatching their zombie friends (which Madison pauses to kill the young girl as she’s the same age as Alicia), Jeremiah knows that his son Try is probably responsible for killing them. After all, the Walkers would have taken their supplies, RV, and equipment. This was Troy’s dark side manifesting and killing his own people rathe than they leave the ranch, a very Negan thing to do. Madison has an idea.

They return back to the ranch with the family’s dead bodies in tow, they use them as props and blame the Walkers for their deaths. Troy and his soldiers, of course, know the truth, but they remain silent. This causes those on the fence about running to stay, and everyone starts to prepare for the upcoming fight against the Native Americans. Nick confronts his mother about the lie afterward, commenting that he gets why she lied, but it’s still a dark thing to do. She points out that its necessary and no one would believe the truth now because the lie is so big. Nick warns his mother that even though Troy will be the cause for their safety, she must never forget who (more likely what) he really is.